Jamie's incredible baked lamb shanks

Jamie described his baked lamb shanks "incredible", and I'll say the taste is quite truly so. The first time I baked this, I may have baked a tad too long, as the vegetables were all melted into almost nothingness. Last night, on my second try, I'd shortened the cooking time, so the lamb was less brown, but it tasted as good nonetheless.

The lamb was baked for so long in its own fats, as well as butter and olive oil, that it was almost like a confit. The onions and carrots added a sweet twist to the otherwise savoury dish. I omitted leek, simply because I didn't have it in the fridge.

I find Jamie overly generous with oil, so I've reduced the amount of butter and olive oil used. My version may be less good than his for sure, but it'll be less sinful as well. Especially as I also exercised portion control and shared one shank between two persons.

To maximise oven usage, throw 1-2 potatoes to bake together (but for half the time). Serve the lamb with mashed potatoes or just simply baked ones. Below is his recipe done it my way, as I remember it.

Jamie's incredible lamb shanks
for 1 shank

1 lamb shank
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 sprig of thyme
1 spoon of cold butter, quantity according to conscience
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 carrot
1 onion
extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper
white wine

1-2 potatoes
fresh cream or milk
salt and black pepper

Preheat oven at 200C.

Chopped 1 small sprig of rosemary and the thyme into small pieces if you're using fresh ones. Yeah, my rosemary and thyme plants are still surviving after battling gales and storms. Original recipe also uses sage leaves, which I omitted. So please use if you have them. Mix with butter, salt and pepper.

Make incisions into the lamb shank and stuff the flavoured butter into the cut pockets. Rub the lamb with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Finely sliced carrot and onion (and leek if you have). Cut an A3 sheet of aluminum foil, place the vegetables, remaining rosemary (and sage leaves) and whole garlic in the centre. Put the lamb shank, bone upright on top. Splash some white wine over and wrap up entirely in foil.

Bake for about 2 hours or longer, until the meat is tender. Halfway through the baking, throw the potatoes into the oven. When the potatoes are done, mash with some milk or cream, salt and pepper.